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The Muslim Judge and Municipal Politics in Colonial Algeria and Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Allan Christelow
Affiliation:
Bayero University, Nigeria

Extract

The qadi, or Muslim judge, strikes one as an anomalous figure in the contexts of colonial Algeria and Senegal, areas better known for their mahdi-like resistance leaders, quietist Sufi shaikhs, and strongly assimilationist colonial regimes. In both cases, there were in fact attempts to eliminate the Muslim courts–in Algeria in the 1880s, and in the communes of Senegal in the early 1900s. While the two court systems were rather different, it is striking that the eventual crises had similar dynamics and that both occurred just as indigenous urban elites were beginning to seek an active role in politics. A comparative study of the two cases should not only help to put the problem of Islamic law in colonial settings into wider perspective, but also shed light on the antecedents of some well-known twentieth-century political developments.

Type
Politics and Religion
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1982

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References

1 Assimilationist policy in Senegal was limited to the quatre communes–Saint-Louis, Gorée, Dakar, and Rufisque. Their African inhabitants were referred to as originaires. Goree, the old island trading post just off Dakar, was small and had few Muslims, and thus plays no role in this study. Until 1907, Rufisque was included in the jurisdiction of the Dakar Muslim court. In Algeria, only the territory of the Sahara, which had a military administration, escaped the influence of assimilationist policy.

2 On the concept of the Muslim city, see Lapidus, Ira, Muslim Cities of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)Google Scholar. For a long-term study of an Algerian city with a strong Islamic identity, see Lawless, Richard I. and Blake, Gerald H., Tlemcen: Continuity and Change in an Algerian Islamic Town (London, 1976)Google Scholar, which concentrates on geographic and economic aspects of the city's deevlopment. A social anthropologist's approach to the North African city can be found in Brown, Kenneth L., People of Salé: Tradition and Change in a Moroccan Society (Manchester, England, 1976).Google Scholar

3 See Christelow, Allan, “Baraka and Bureaucracy: Algerian Muslim Judges and the Colonial State, 1854–1892” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1977)Google Scholar. Research on Senegal was carried out in Aix-en-Provence, France, and Dakar, in the summer of 1979.Google Scholar

4 This study focuses mainly on the city of Constantine, since it had a crucial role in the Muslim court crisis. I do not deal with Oranais cities (Oran, Tlemcen, Mascara, Mostaganem) because of the complications this would introduce. They suffered severe disruptions during the resistance period (1830–47) and were more strongly colon dominated than Constantine.

5 These towns have been mainly the province of geographers. On the region of Orleansville, see Yacono, Xavier, La colonisation des plaines du Chélif (Algiers, 1955)Google Scholar. On patterns of land ownership, see Prenant, A., “La propriete fonciere des citadins dans les regions de Sidi Bel Abbes et de Tlemcen,” Annales Algériennes de Géographic 2:1 (1967), 2108.Google Scholar Paralleling the rise of new centers was the decline of small, precolonial hill towns; this is covered by Sari, Djilali, Les villes précoloniales de I'Algérie occidentale: Nédroma, Mazouna, Kalâa (Algiers, 1970).Google Scholar

6 A leading representative of the Islamophile tendency in Algerian policy was Ismail Urbain, a French West Indian mulatto, Saint-Simonian, and convert to Islam. With a number of other Saint-Simonians, he had gone on a mission to the Orient in the 1830s, teaching French in the Egyptian military academy.

7 Faidherbe went through his apprenticeship in colonial administration in Algeria and went on to become governor of Senegal in 1856. On Algerian influence, see Pasquier, Roger, “L'influence de 1'expérience algérienne sur la politique de la France en Sénégal (1842–1869),“ in Perspectives nouvelles sur le passé de I'Afrique Noire et le Madagascar—Mélanges offerts a Hubert Deschamps (Paris, 1974), 263–84.Google Scholar

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9 For a critique of codification efforts, see Penant, D., ”De la condition juridique des indigenes en matiere civile et commerciale dans les colonies franchises,“ Recueil Penant, 15, Pt. 2 (1906), 140Google Scholar; and Gouilly, Alphonse, L'lslam dans I'Afrique Occidemale Franqaise (Paris, 1952), 251–53.Google Scholar The leading judicial figure in the Algerian campaign for the unification of jurisdictions was Édouard Sautayra. With the Arabist Eugene Cherbonneau, he published Le Droit Musulman: du Statut Personnel et des Successions, 2 vols. (Paris, 1873)Google Scholar, which can be seen as the opening volley in the campaign. Captain Nicolas Seignette's virtually incomprehensible translation of Sidi Khalil's treatise on the Maliki rite of Islamic law, the Mukhtasar, was significantly titled Code Musulman (Algiers, 1878)Google Scholar. On the contrast between French and British approaches, see Smith, M. G., “The Sociological Framework of Law,” in Corporations and Society (London, 1974).Google Scholar

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11 On the Senegal region, see Colvin, Lucie G., “Islam and the State of Kajoor: A Case of Successful Resistance to Jihad,” Journal of African History, 15:4 (1974), 587606CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Miske, Ahmad Baba, “Al-Wasit (1911)–Tableau de la Mauritanie à la fin du XlXème siecle,” Bulletin de I'lnstitut Fondamental de I'Afrique Noire, 30:B, 1 (1968), 117–64.Google Scholar On Algeria, see my Saintly Descent and Worldly Affairs in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Mascara, Algeria,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12:2 (1980).Google Scholar

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14 This has been suggestte by Berque, for Algeria and Colvin for Senegal.Google Scholar

15 The difficulties of a precolonial Algerian qadi are detailed in Cherbonneau, E., ”Notice biographique sur Mohammed Ben Bou Diaf, Muphti de Constantine,“ Journal Asiatique, 4ème Serie, 5 (1850), 275–89.Google Scholar

16 A theoretical framework for understanding this process is developed in Ilya Harik, F., ”The Impact of the Domestic Market on Rural-Urban Relations in the Middle East,” in Rural Politics and Social Change in the Middle East, Antoun, R. and Harik, I., eds. (Bloomington, Indiana, 1972).Google Scholar

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18 Al-Makki Ben Badis, in Conseil Général, Constantine, 21 September 1865. In the early 1860s the French had attempted to impose a requirement of attendance at one of the three official medersas, to which Ben Badis strongly objected.

19 For a general history of the town, see Camara, Camille, Saint-Louis de Sénégal (Dakar, 1968).Google Scholar

20 Pasquier, ,“L'influence de l'expérience algérienne,” 268.Google Scholar

21 On the history of attempts to create a Muslim court in Saint-Louis, see Faidherbe's, 1856 report on the Muslim court question, in Archives du Gouvemement Général de l'Afrique Occidentale Franchise (hereafter cited as AGGAOF), M 8.Google Scholar

22 The creation of the Muslim court figured in propaganda against al-Hajj Umar. See Gerresch, Claudine, “Jugements du Moniteur du Sénégal sur al-Hajj Umar de 1857 a 1864,” Bulletin de VInstitut Fondamental de I'Afrique Noire, 35:B, 3 (1973), 571–73.Google Scholar

23 Barrows, Leland Conley, “The Merchants and General Faidherbe: Aspects of French Expansion in the 1850s,“ Revue Franqaise d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, 61 (1974), 275.Google Scholar

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25 Badis, Al-Makki Ben, in Conseil Général, Constantine, 3 October 1865.Google Scholar

26 On Algerian politics, see Ageron, Charles-Robert, Les Algériens Musulmans et la France (1871–1919) (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar; and Vatin, Jean-Claude, L'Algérie Politique: Histoire et Société (Paris, 1974)Google Scholar. On Senegal, see Johnson, G. Wesley, The Emergence of Black Politics in Senegal, 1900–19 (Stanford, Calif., 1971)Google Scholar; and Idowu, H. O., “Assimilation in Nineteenth-Century Senegal,” Bulletin de I'lnstitut Fondamental de I'Afrique Noire, 30:B, 4 (1968), 1422–47.Google Scholar

27 On conscription in Algeria, see Ageron, , Les Algeriens, Ch. 38.Google Scholar On Senegal, Michel, M., “Citoyenneté et service militaire dans les quatre communes de Sénégal au cours de la premiere guerre mondiale,” in Perspectives nouvelles sur le passé de I'Afrique Noire, 299314.Google Scholar

28 On Kabyle policy, see Ageron, , Les Algeriens, ch. 10.Google Scholar On the educational aspect of intervention, see Colonna, Fanny, Instituteurs Algériens (1883–1939) (Paris, 1975).Google Scholar

29 Hannoteau, A. and Letourneux, A., La Kabylie el les Coulumes Kabyles, 3 vols. (Paris, 18721873). It is important to note that this work was published at the same time as Sautayra and Cherbonneau's Le Droit Musulman, pointing to a unity of purpose behind the two works.Google Scholar

30 Mallarmé, V., “La brochure 'L'Administration de la Justice en Algérie” et ses conclusions,” Bulletin Judiciaire de I'Algérie, 1 (May 1877), 129–34.Google Scholar

31 On the purge in France, see Picot, Georges, “Les magistrats et la démocratie,” Revue des Deux Mondes, 62 (15 March 1884), 288315.Google Scholar The connection with Algerian policy is made clear in the speech by Pompei, Procureur Général, in Conseil Supérieur du Gouvernement, Algérie, 16 November 1883.Google Scholar

32 Johnson, , Emergence of Black Politics, 4455.Google Scholar

33 Dakar, Maire, to Gouverneur, Senegal, 22 July 1892, in AGGAOF, M 8. The mayor, Charles de Montfort, was probably French, according to H. O. Idowu, and was married to a mulatto woman. He served on the Conseil General, as mayor, and as leader of the bar of Senegal. He spoke fluent Wolof, and claimed to be a defender of Lebou interests in the land questionGoogle Scholar. See Idowu, , “Café au Lait: Senegal's Mulatto Community in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 6:3 (December 1972), 272.Google Scholar

34 For instance, see the Lieutenant Governor's remarks in Extrait des deliberations de la Commission Coloniale, Conseil Général, Senegal, Session de 1903, in AGGAOF, M 241.

35 The case is discussed by Ageron, in Les Algériens, 443–45.Google Scholar A full report appears in Sénat (France), Documents, Annexe 136, 19 June 1891.Google Scholar

36 On Majjawi, see my “Hawl bidaya al-nahda al-jazairiyya: katib li Abd al-Qadir al- Majjawi” (Concerning the Beginning of the Algerian Cultural Revival: A Pamphlet by Abd al-Qadir al-Majjawi), Al-Thaqafa (Algiers) 46 (September 1978), 5564. I am currently preparing an article on al-Makki Ben Badis.Google Scholar

37 A similar sort of collaboration between an independent-minded French journalist and aspiring native politicians can be found in Dakar, , with Jean, d'Oxoby'sLa Democratic du Sénégal, beginning in 1913Google Scholar. See Johnson, , Emergence of Black Politics, 103–4, 148–53.Google Scholar

38 Ageron, , Les Algeriens, 360.Google Scholar

39 The only surviving account of which I know is that in L'lndependant de Constantine, 2428 June and 1 July 1887. For French radicals, the political logic behind instigating the violence, ifthey had any such role, might have been based on the ties between Mzabi merchants and Jewish wholesalers. In any case, the radicals had set an example of violence to be imitated in their election-time assaults on Algerian Jews. More important factors, in my view, were social and economic changes within the Muslim community, which 1 discuss in the conclusion.Google Scholar

40 L'Indépendant de Constantine, 23 March 1886. The debtor had fled to the Mzab, and the Mzabi community of Constantine tried to settle the matter out of court, but one major commercial house refused to settle, so they initiated a boycott of it throughout the province. One finds strikingly similar problems involving personal status jurisdiction and European credit to native merchants in Saint-Louis at the same time. See Rapport de la Commission sur la Réorganisation de la Justice Musulmane, 1 April 1889, in AGGAOF, M 8.Google Scholar

41 Le Temps (Paris), 3 November 1888 and 15 January 1889. A noteworthy supporter of separate Mzabi courts was the native affairs expert Commandant Louis Rinn, who probably saw it as an application of divide-and-rule tactics and as a way of winning influence in the south.Google Scholar

42 Le Républican de Constantine, 4 July 1887.Google Scholar The mayor was the Arabist Emest Mercier, who produced a number of studies on the history of the city. Ironically, he had been one of the first to call for the abolition of qadis—in Des abus du régime judiciarie en Algérie (Constantine, 1870).Google Scholar

43 Memoire addressée à la Commission Sénatorial de I'Algérie par les conseillers municipaux indigènes el notables musulmans de Conslanline (Constantine, 1870), 1.Google Scholar

44 Général, Conseil, Constantine, 9 October 1887.Google Scholar

45 Reports and correspondence on the decree are in AGGAOF, M 79 and M 244.

46 Gouverneur, Lieutenant, Senegal, to Gouverneur Général, AOF, 14 April 1904, in AGGAOF, M 244.Google Scholar

47 Dakar, Maire, to Lieutenant Gouverneur, Senegal, 26 December 1903, in AGGAOF, M 244.Google Scholar

48 Cour d'Appel, AOF, 7 April 1905 (Alphan Toure v. Maman Diaware) in Recueil Penanr, 14 (1905)Google Scholar. For other details, see Senegal, Procureur Général, to Général, Gouverneur, AOF, 8 April 1904, in AGGAOF, M 244.Google Scholar

49 Decree of 22 May 1905. An interesting reaction to the decree was a reported “exodus” of Muslims from Senegal—see La Quinzaine Coloniale, 10 June 1905.Google Scholar Presumably their destination was The Gambia, where the British had just established a Muslim court. See Governor, , The Gambia, to Gouverneur Général, AOF, 22 June 1903, in AGGAOF, M 241.Google Scholar

50 For an instructive comparison, see Migdal, Joel S., Palestinian Society and Politics (Princeton, 1980), 1216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the Algerian case, see Prenant, , “La propriété foncière.”Google Scholar

51 Little is known of Algerian Muslim commerce in this period. The antagonism may have stemmed from the fact that the merchants were involved in trade with Tunisia and the Middle East and were bringing back Pan-Islamic ideas from their commercial travels. Bardin, Pierre, Algeriens et Tunisiens dans I'Empire Ottoman de 1848 a 1914 (Paris, 1979), covers only the diplomatic aspects of this question, but he does make it clear that the late 1880s were a period of severe tension between France and the Ottoman Empire over the status of Algerians.Google Scholar

52 The most serious of these occurred in the Aurès region; a smaller outbreak occurred in the region of Mascara. The French also faced a Sanusiyya-Ottoman inspired rebellion in the far south of Algeria and in Niger, but this was essentially a Saharan, not an Algerian, affair.

53 The pageantry is strikingly illustrated in some of the photographs of the period reproduced in Françhise Renaudot, L'histoire des Français en Algérie (Paris, 1979).Google Scholar

54 For a theoretical treatment of this theme, see Colonna, Fanny, “Cultural Resistance and Religious Legitimacy in Colonial Algeria,” Economy and Society, 3:3 (1974), 233–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar